Diving Ball

original concept, intuitive controls. I really love the sound effects. Nice game I could kill some time too. There might be a little bug where you won't fail if you hit the platforms on your side though.

Simple and effective design. Would be great for mobile too!

@tomn114 did you end up getting stuck on one of the blocks?

Neat game! The difficulty seems to vary suddenly from very easy (where you don't even have to move to avoid the platforms) to very difficult (when you get a wide platform directly underneath you), but that kinda adds to the atmosphere I think.

My highest (lowest?) score was 867 metres.

@sonicpixelation No, it bounced off slightly after the side hit the platform (if I recall correctly it even made a sound effect). It was a very slight touch so maybe it didn’t get picked up in the collision.

Love the graphic and the control. The background texture seemed a little weird for me, I think it is only me :)

I like the high resolution pixel art. Was kind of confused on what causes a game over...like if the ball has hit points or if its the amount of collision. Overall a good entry. Ran fine on Linux.

There don't seem to be many random spawns near the edges which means you just kinda let it run and score high sometimes. I just left it going and got up to 900m+ until something spawned at the edge. So I guess the main problem here is the game lacks interactivity when you are doing "well". It would probably be better to spawn platforms from a list of patterns that force you to move back and forth rather than relying on purely random spawns (it's one of those cases where a game would be better if you faked randomness rather than actually having it be more random).

@kraemahz thanks for the feedback. The spawners already have a pattern but it does need some work. Three spawning oscillates between left and right picking from a range of block sizes. The problem is only a 4 wide will close the wall gap. I should change that. Thank you for playing!

Great controls and a simple intuitive idea, great work for 2 days!

Had a good time playing! Got to a max depth of 984. The edge hugging strategy definitely works but is not guaranteed. Fun little mechanic and nicely polished game for a jam! I enjoyed the audio and graphics. Great job keep making fun games. :)

Great sound design, I love the pixel art (expecially for the diving helmet). I like the concept for the movement and I think it's really unique, but the game doesn't really use it in a very interesting way. I hope you'll expand on this a bit more, excited to see where it goes!

The visuals were pretty and the sound design was really cool, I definitely felt under water there with the varying jet sounds and bubbles. I wish there was just a bit more to do or see while I was going deeper and deeper. I got to 600 and something and it felt like there wasn't anything else for me to see. Was there? Did I miss it? The control scheme was a bit surprising because I kind of thought the outline was where the jet will be coming out of, but I did get the hang of the controls pretty quickly. If there was just a bit more reward happening while I was going down I might have tried to go even further. Thank you for the game.

Very good graphics, the game is hard and quite addictive, well done ^^

The controls are smooth and the goal is simple. Was pretty fun and a little addicting! The art is really nice too, really crisp. I did realize that the depth meter was more of a timer, as when you pushed yourself up it didn't reverse. I tried to cheese it by floating as long as I could but the ball wasn't very easy to keep control of that way, so my evil plans were mostly foiled. Nice work, it's a good entry! The background audio really sells that you are under water, something I couldn't figure out how to do in my compo. How did you do it?

@wheffle Thanks for playing it. The audio is only a microphone and audacity believe it or not. for this one I did a lot of blowing bubbles in a can of seltzer with a straw. Then scale the speed way back. because it's actual water moving it keeps that wet quality even when stretched out. This is only my second game I have ever really added sound to, and the first one I have released.That being said this video was probably what helped me the most to be able to make the audio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kux_LvRl57U.

I've seen several games with a similar concept, but this one stands out to me because of the movement mechanics! It's really fun to throw the submarine around like it's a rock in a slingshot :D (Incidentally, I made a game with a similar mechanic two years ago for LD)

I also liked that the gameplay was slightly forgiving, e.g. you don't lose if you barely hit something, which made the experience a lot more fun.

Great job overall! Thanks for the game :-)

The sound design here is really really good! Definitely adds to the atmosphere. The controls are smooth and fun to mess around with. The game could use more varied obstacles or something to encourage you to keep moving around, since staying near walls and doing nothing seems like the best strategy. There's a lot of potential!

I needed a moment to understand the controls, but then it was good. Nice movement mechanic. :)

The scaling factor of the dash cursor is a bit odd.